The Best Credit Cards For Online Shopping

Standing in line at the store to make a purchase is old news.

It’s frustrating, time-consuming, and usually more expensive.

That’s probably why 40%of people now shop online several times per month, and 20% of people buy online multiple times per week.

With more and more people opting to save time and money by making everyday purchases online, it’s only smart to look for the credit card that will give you the best rewards for doing so. In this article, I’ll review the best credit cards for online shopping, based on different situations. From there, you can decide which one suits you best and quickly learn more or apply.

Overview: Best Credit Cards For Online Shopping

Best overall

With Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back on every dollar you spend.

Other long-term cash back offerings include 5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3% on dining and drugstores, and 1.5% cash back on all other purchases which will help you continue to save significantly.

You can increase your cash back by signing up for either the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card. If you have one of those cards, the points you’ve earned with your Chase Freedom Unlimited® can transfer to be used on purchasing travel in the Chase Travel Center, where they’re worth more.

As if that weren’t incentive enough, the bonuses continue: you’ll earn an additional 1.5% on all purchases (up to $20,000 spent in the first year), PLUS there’s no annual fee. 

Finally, you’ll get 0% Intro APR on Purchases for 15 months and 0% Intro APR on Balance Transfers for 15 months. After that, you’ll pay an APR of 19.74% - 28.49% Variable, depending on your credit score.

Apply now or read the full review of the Chase Freedom Unlimited®.

Best online grocery shopping

Discover it® Cash Back

The Discover it® Cash Back is one of my top choices for shopping online. Let me first start by talking about Discover’s customer service. You’ve probably seen me talk about this before—but their customer service lives up to what you see in the commercials. No, they may not sit in an all-white office and crack jokes with you, but they’ve got your back. It’s a critical part of Discover’s business model.

This becomes important when you shop online because chances are you’ll run into some challenges with an online merchant, an incorrect charge, or a shipping delay. It just happens. So when those things do occur, it’s best to have a card issuer with excellent service at your back.

You’ll also get a baseline of 1% cash back on all purchases. This gets bumped up to 5% in specific categories every quarter ($1,500 max spend) when you activate. One of those categories happens to be Amazon.com in 2020.

To top this off, you’ll get an end of year match from Discover as a new cardmember—so whatever cash back you earn in your first year, Discover will match it for you.

Best for online travel purchases

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of our favorites for online travel purchases. If you book hotels and flights online often, you’ll love this card. The card does come with an annual fee of $95. If you use the card enough, you’ll be able to earn more rewards than the annual fee costs, so it’ll be worth it. In fact, I use this card for all of my everyday purchases, and I’ve never once earned less than it cost me to have the card.

For all purchases, you’ll get 2x miles per dollar spent, which ends up working out to two percent back if you use the card for travel only (it’s less when you exchange it for a statement credit, for instance). So between flights and hotels, you can rack up some serious points quickly.

You’ll also earn a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. Your miles don’t expire, there are no blackout dates, and you won’t even experience foreign transaction fees. A great feature that Capital One has is the ability to receive up to a $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® – which saves you a lot of time when traveling.

Apply now or read our full review of the Capital One Venture Rewards credit card.

Best for sign-up bonus

Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® card

Disclaimer – The information about the Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa card has been collected independently by MoneyUnder30.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

The Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® card is an excellent choice for shopping online, especially if you want a nice cash bonus to get you started. Currently, you can earn $150 in cash rewards after you spend $500 over the first three months of having the card.

Also, you’ll enjoy a 0% for 15 months interest rate on all purchases for having the card. This way, you can make a large online purchase, collect your $150 bonus cash, and still have 15 months to pay it off.

On top of the sign-up bonuses, you’ll earn a flat 1.5% on all purchases made with the credit card – regardless of where or when you make them. This provides an excellent alternative for those who don’t want to deal with the rotating 5% categories that a Discover it® Cash Back offers. Outside of shopping online, you’ll earn 1.8% back on qualified digital wallet purchases (i.e., Apple Pay® or Google Pay^TM) during the first 12 months of opening the card.

One final feature for online shoppers is the Wells Fargo Earn More Mall. It’s a website specifically for Wells Fargo customers that allows you to earn additional cash back by going through their links. One example is Groupon, which gives you an additional 3% cash back. There are all kinds of stores in the Earn More Mall, so you can use this to multiply the cash back you’re already earning with the card.

Apply now or read the full review of the Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa® card.

Best for students

Discover it® Student Cash Back

The Discover it® Student Cash Back is similar to the Discover it® Cash Back mentioned above but is designed specifically for students. You won’t get the same perks as the Discover it®, but you also won’t have to have as good of credit history. A great feature is the $20 statement credit you’ll receive for getting above a 3.0 GPA each year for up to five years.

Regarding online shopping, you’ll get the same rotating categories for 5% cash back ($1,500 max spend per quarter, activation required) that the other Discover cards get, including Amazon.com. All other purchases will get you 1% cash back automatically. This is a nice feature for a student card and will allow you to get some extra cash when buying things like textbooks and clothes for college.

To sweeten the pot even further, Discover will give you a nice introductory offer. After that, the standard 14.49% - 23.49% Variable APR applies. If you’re getting the card right as you’re starting college, this is a nice feature, as it’ll give you time to get settled into your dorm and find a job to start paying down the balance you may have accrued getting there.

The card has no annual fee, and they’ll waive the late fee if and when you miss a payment for the first time. You can get a free Credit Scorecard through Discover to keep tabs on your credit, and you can use the Freeze It feature to lock the credit card in case you lose it at the bar…er…bookstore.

Apply now or read the full review of the Discover it® Student Cash Back credit card.

Summary

As you can see, different cards work best for online shopping based on your situation. Any of the cards I mentioned above will be a great addition to your wallet when shopping online, but if I had to pick one, I’d go with the Discover it Cash Back. It has no annual fee and gives you some excellent sign-on bonuses. Plus, you can get 5% back on Amazon purchases at least three months out of the year!

Read more

• Best Cash Back Credit Cards
• Is A Store Card A Good First Credit Card?